I Still Believe in Heroes

Image via StarWars.com Before I begin, I feel the need to say that while I certainly enjoy the original trilogy very much (the prequels not so much), I've never been a die-hard fan of the series. For whatever reason, Star Wars  never resonated with me in the same way it did with other people and it was only until recent years that I really looked at those original films and realized how good they actually are. But man, The Force Awakens  is just something else. I loved this movie and I will say right away that this is probably my favorite  Star Wars film of all. I know many people will disagree, but maybe some will agree and that is the beauty of film. Much like with food, everybody's taste is different and The Force Awakens , for me, is just exquisite. **WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD** One of the main problems I had with the prequels was how political they were. I felt that that specific approach took away a lot of the magic that the original trilogy had and made the pre

Image via Collider.com Last year, when Mockingjay Part 1 came out and a lot of people criticized it, I defended it. It was a very good movie despite its flaws. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Part 2 . This has to be one of the least satisfying endings to a series that I have seen in a very long time, which is a shame considering how much I enjoyed the first three films. Below, I will explain everything that I liked and disliked about this movie. **WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD** There is a lot wrong with this movie, however, I will begin by pointing out a few positives. First of all, the performances were great as always. Regardless of what one may think about the movie as a whole, it is hard to deny that these actors all have done a fantastic job of really transforming themselves into their respective roles. And second, there is an incredibly well-done action sequence between Katniss & company and the mutts that takes place in the sewers which ends up being the

Images via ComingSoon.net Last night, the first official teaser trailer for the upcoming Captain America: Civil War  dropped along with 3 posters. First of all, I have to say that I love all 3 posters. They do a great job in highlighting the separation between the characters and they are sure to start making fans want to pick a side. Speaking of, I thought they would go with the usual "Whose side are you on?" tag but I was pleasantly surprised to see instead "Divided we fall". As great as these posters are, however, they pale in comparison to the trailer. Simply put, I think this has been the best trailer I have seen all year. The trailer clearly explained what this story will revolve around and showed fantastic action shots but yet didn't reveal any major spoilers. The music flowed perfectly with the trailer and nothing seemed out of place or unnecessary. Much like the posters, but even more so, the trailer clearly lays out the division between the c

Image via IMDB It's October, which means that Halloween is right around the corner. I love this time of the year and horror movies are some of my favorite movies to watch so I thought I would come up with a list of essential movies to watch this month. These movies have all been around for a quite a while and you might have already seen them all or at least most of them. However, if there is even one movie on here that you have not yet seen, then I hope I can encourage you to go out and give it a try. Please note, this list is not in any specific order. 1. Halloween  (1978) I think I would be remiss if I didn't kick this list off with John Carpenter's original Halloween  movie. This is a movie that was shot in only 20 days with an extremely low budget of $300,000, but it was so incredibly effective in terms of causing fear in its viewers. This is one of the great horror movies and has undoubtedly stood the test of time. This movie, actually the entire franchise (e

Image via Broadsheet Let's just get this out of the way: The Martian  is one of the best movies I've seen all year. The movie, which is directed by Ridley Scott, stars Matt Damon as astronaut and botanist Mark Watney who is left behind on Mars by his crew after being assumed to be dead when debris hit and left him unconscious during a storm. Left with very limited supplies, Mark has to figure out how to communicate with NASA back on Earth while at the same time figuring out how to grow food on Mars. The supporting cast includes names such as Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie as the members of Watney's crew. Back on Earth, we see people like Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, and Kristen Wiig. **WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD** So, what is it that makes The Martian  so good? Well, for starters, it looks and feels very real. The visual effects on Mars are simply spectacular to the point where you feel as if they shot th

Image via Wikipedia Crazy, Stupid, Love.  stars Steve Carell as Cal, an everyday man who is going through a divorce from his wife of 25 years, Emily (Julianne Moore). While drinking away his sorrows at a bar, he comes across Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a suave womanizer who offers to help Cal rediscover his manhood. As Jacob helps Cal navigate through his newfound sex-life, he meets Hannah (Emma Stone), who he describes to Cal as a "game changer " for him. As the friendship between Cal and Jacob progresses, they each discover things about themselves that they didn't know where there all along. Crazy, Stupid, Love.  is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated movies in the past 5 years and it's one of many movies that I always urge people to go out and see. It's a romantic comedy but it's different than your typical rom-com and contains some awesome twists that hit you without warning. It's a very funny movie that shows you multiple stories that all

Image via ComingSoon.net One of the things that stood out to me immediately when I walked into the theater for this movie was the amount of senior citizens that were in attendance. That, to me, shows that the advertising for this film hit its primary target which is not surprising considering the premise of this movie. It was also cool seeing so many people lining up to see a Robert De Niro movie that is actually worth watching, because in recent years, those types of movies have been few and far between. The Intern  follows retired widower, Ben Whittaker, as he lands an internship with an up-and-coming online store after an endless search for a way to pass the time. As he begins at About the Fit, he is immediately faced with a world that he was once familiar with but that has since evolved drastically thanks to technological advances. Being the curious and observant man that he is, however, he begins to learn from his much younger colleagues and before long he is able to bec

Image via IMDB.com Over the past few years, Johnny Depp has been involved in movies that someone with that much talent should never have even considered ( Mortdecai, Transcendence, The Lone Ranger, and Dark Shadows  to name a few). He was fine in Into the Woods  and his cameo in 21 Jump Street  was fun, but gone was the man who had given us exceptional performances in movies such as Edward Scissorhands , Sweeney Todd, and the original Pirates of the Caribbean . But seeing him portray James "Whitey" Bulger in Black Mass  more than makes up for the multiple times we were disappointed by a Johnny Depp movie. If this is not the best performances of his career, it is pretty damn close to it. He's that good. **WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD** With a stellar cast that includes Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Kevin Bacon, among others, Black Mass tells the true story of one of the most notorious gangsters in American history, James Bulger. The story i

With the "Oscar Season" about to start, I thought I would give a list of my favorite movies of the year so far as well as the most disappointing ones. This list will obviously only contain films that I have seen so movies like Ex-Machina , Me and Earl and the Dying Girl , and Dope , which all seem like terrific movies, will not be on my list because I don't yet have an opinion on them. This list also reflects only my opinion so it will look a lot different than your list or somebody else's list, but the beautiful thing about film is that it is subjective and everybody will have different opinions. So while you may not agree with my picks, others might. There is no right or wrong list when it comes to movies. I will start off with my 3 most disappointing movies before talking about what I feel are the top 10 best  movies of the year so far. So without further ado, here are my lists: Top 3 Most Disappointing Films 3. Aloha Going into this movie, I thought there co

Image via Variety.com I will admit that when the first trailers for The Gift  came out, it looked like a very generic and uninteresting thriller that gave me no desire to go out and watch it. But as it got closer to its release, critics began to see this film and came out buzzing with excitement for it. Positive word of mouth spread like wildfire and before I knew it, this movie had become a "must-see" for me. Well, after four weeks of its original release, I finally got around to watching this film and I could not believe what I saw. You see, The Gift  did not end up being a good film. It ended up being a great one.  **WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD** The first time I ever paid attention to Joel Edgerton was when he appeared in Warrior , a movie that I absolutely love. Ever since then, I've been keeping an eye on him hoping to see him turn out more fantastic movies such as that one. While he hadn't impressed much in the films he had done between Warrior and The

Image via Forbes.com Last night, the first official trailer for the upcoming Deadpool  film has hit the web and it did not disappoint.  Deadpool has been a character that has become wildly popular in recent years and when the terrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out in 2009, fans everywhere lost their mind at the way that they butchered the Deadpool character. Ever since then, no one has been pushing harder for this movie to get made than Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds. This trailer is evidence of how passionate he is about this character and shows just how hard he wants to redeem it. And it's not just this trailer, but all of the lead up to it, whether it was his little skit with Mario Lopez or the trailer announcement or the tag that came with the Fantastic Four  trailer, it has all been done perfectly. Now onto the trailer itself, I should say that it doesn't reveal much about the actual story, which is perfectly fine because it is just the first trailer. It tells

Image via Reddit It has been announced that a remake of F. W. Murnau's 1922 horror film, Nosferatu , is in the works. For those who are unaware of what Nosferatu is, it is essentially the story of Dracula except that the characters have different names because the studio was not able to get the rights to the novel. The silent film, despite being almost a century old, is widely considered one of the best horror movies of all time, ranking 3rd amongst Rotten Tomatoes' "Top 100 Horror Movies". What excites me about this film being remade is that it signals a return to what vampires are meant to be, which is terrifying monsters. In the past 10 years, there hasn't really been a good incarnation of any of the classic horror monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Werewolf, etc.). In my eyes, the best vampire movie in recent years was 2007's 30 Days of Night, but it does not relate to Dracula and doesn't even mention the word "vampire" throughout the

Image via Yahoo.com Going into this movie as a hardcore fight fan, it was hard for me not to be excited. From the first trailer, while it showed way too much, I immediately wanted to watch the movie. Given the talented people involved all around the film, I expected a good movie. Instead, I witnessed a great one. Even though I thought the trailer showed a lot of the main plot points of the film, it didn't really take away from the film. In fact, all of the emotional parts (and there are a lot) still hit me the same way they would have even if I didn't know what was going to happen. Simply put, Southpaw  delivers on every level. Let's go now into a more detailed look at this film. **WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD** Seeing how this is a boxing movie, I should start off by mentioning how incredible the fight sequences were in this movie. I have never seen fighting look so real in a movie before, and it wasn't just the way that punches were thrown but the damage on the

Image via ComingSoon.net The first official trailer for Pixar's The Good Dinosaur has hit the web. Unlike the teaser trailer that was released last month, this full-length trailer focuses heavily on our main characters Arlo and Spot and shows the beginning of their friendship as well as parts of their adventure together. The visuals in this movie are incredible, but the scene that sold me completely on this film is the beautiful scene with the fireflies, which can be seen above. It's hard to know from the two trailers we've had for this film so far if there is much in the way of dialogue, since between the two trailers all we hear is Arlo say "Hello?". Maybe we'll see more of that in future trailers but either way, I'm very excited for this movie. The Good Dinosaur  is set to hit theaters on November 25, 2015, which will mark the first time ever that Pixar releases two films in one year.

Image via AMC Movie News The first official trailer for Academy Award-Winning director Alejandro G. I ñárritu's The Revenant , starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, has been released. Right away, you can easily tell it is an I ñárritu film because his way of shooting is unlike anyone else. The way he follows his actors with the camera makes it feel as if the viewer is right there walking alongside the characters and that is a very unique quality. The music that he uses in this trailer is also reminiscent to that of Birdman , the film that won him the Academy Award last year. It is also interesting to note the film was made using only natural lighting, which is a very difficult thing to do as it makes it much more difficult to manipulate shadows and the light is always unpredictable. The trailer itself doesn't tell us much of the story, but teasers rarely do that. Nonetheless, this is still one of the best trailers I have seen all year. Even though there is not much dia

Image via Forbes.com It would be a lie to sit here and pretend like I have been an Ant-Man fan my entire life. The truth is that I didn't bother learning much about him until a few years ago. You see, in 2012's San Diego Comic Con, Marvel showed a one-minute long video which turned out to be the test footage for this film. There was no dialogue nor any sort of story to it, but that didn't matter because what we saw was unlike anything we had seen before. My interest in this unknown superhero was sparked that night and while many people mocked this film leading up its release, I kept telling people that this movie was going to surprise everyone. What I saw in that footage was so much potential, and then adding the incredible cast elevated my enthusiasm even more. But now that I have seen the movie, I have to say that even I was surprised by the final product, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. ***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD*** Ant-Man  opens up with some

Image via VanityFair.com The first official trailer for DC's Suicide Squad  has dropped and it is hard not to love it. It does a fantastic job of setting the tone of the movie and introducing the characters without revealing much about them other than their looks. At the same time, there is a wonderful version of the song "I Started A Joke" playing in the background and it enhances this trailer in so many ways and helps build the eventual Joker reveal. When the list of characters that would be appearing first came out, two names stood out to most fans: The Joker and Harley Quinn. And then the casting for said characters were announced and people began paying even closer attention to the project. But then, images of the cast began emerging and while people were absolutely loving Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for Jared Leto's look as The Joker. The way this trailer was put together almost seems as though it was made for the s

Image via Batman-news.com When the first teaser trailer for BvS: Dawn of Justice  dropped a few months back, I liked it. I didn't love it, but it gave me enough to make me confident that it would turn into a very good film. But having seen this official full-length trailer, I gotta say I absolutely loved  it. This trailer gives us a whole lot of new footage. In fact, almost everything we hear and see is completely different from what was shown in the teaser. While the trailer ran a full minute longer than most trailers, it leaves wanting to see so much more and that's really what trailers are supposed to do. In the trailer itself we see some pretty interesting things. Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is seen in action for the first time and while we didn't see a whole lot of her, what we did see didn't look all that bad. There is also a Joker reference, which was one of my favorite parts because of what it potentially represents. The scene, while very short, shows Be

Image via Slash Film When it was first announced that the adorable, banana-loving, yellow minions from Despicable Me  would be getting their own feature film, it was hard not to get excited. Then, the trailers began dropping and each was funnier than the last and the excitement for this movie rose incredibly high. Yet for everything that this film had going for itself, it was very hard to walk out of the theater and not feel a little disappointed and underwhelmed by the final product. For one, almost all of the really funny scenes in the movie were already in the trailers so they didn't have the same effect that they would have if we hadn't already seen them a hundred times before. That's not to say that it was a boring movie by any means, there were still plenty of chuckles throughout, but it was simply hard to find something worth having a real laugh at that wasn't previously shown in the commercials. What this movie showed, more than anything else, was that t